


Pre-destiny, fate or a feather

by writtenndust



Series: OQ Prompt Party [2]
Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 07:04:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14051571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writtenndust/pseuds/writtenndust
Summary: Feather Tattoo Verse (Author Specific Prompt): 'Rob tells her the story of the feather tattoo.'





	Pre-destiny, fate or a feather

Roni sat on the ledge, feet overhanging the side of the building with her legs bare to mid-thigh, apart from a thick pair of fluffy socks. Dawn, her favourite time of the morning - though she’d never tell a soul, lest she ruin her night-owl persona. She loved how the air was, that time of the morning, crisp and cool and filled with golden light. 

Her favourite place, was the spot on the ledge at the top of her building - the roof, four flours above her bar and three above her apartment, was scattered with mismatched deck chairs, dying pot-plants and a small barbecue area, with a barbecue that never worked. From there, she could see all the way to the space needle, and beyond the Seattle skyline to the warming glow of the sun peeking up over the horizon.

She took a deep breath, hugging her earthen coffee mug in both hands, with the sleeves of Rob’s hoodie protecting her fingers from the heat.

“There you are.” The voice behind her brought a smile to her lips and she swung one leg back over the ledge, straddling the brick shoulder with one foot still dangling in the air over the street - she smiled when she met his eye.

“Good Morning.”

“Good Morning,” He grinned in return, taking a seat next to her with his back to the view and his eyes locked on her face. He leaned in, lips stretched in a wider smile before he touched them to hers. “You look lovely today.”

Roni laughed, dropping her chin to her chest with pinked cheeks before looking back up at him through sleep-tousled curls.

“Thoroughly satiated, you mean?”

“You said it,” He smirked, placing another peck to her lips. “Not me.” He reached over, to tug on the sleeve of her hoodie, but she tucked it tighter around herself and pouted. “I was looking for this.”

“I like it. It’s warm.” 

“I know.” He mock-shivered, for effect. 

Rob reached for her left hand, pulling it down into her lap to caress her fingers. Roni just watched him, mesmerised by how his thumb traced a pattern over her palm, through the webs of her fingers and around her wrist. He stopped his ministrations when he pushed the sleeve back from her wrist, and she waited on baited breath, watching him as his thumb circled the end of her feather tattoo.

“What is it?” She asked quietly, and for a moment, she thought perhaps he wasn’t going to answer, but then he pulled in a deep breath and looked up into her eyes.

The sun had finally jumped over the skyline, casting beams of golden light through the gaps in the buildings, one of which just touched the apple of her cheek and set the gold flecks in her eyes alight. Rob marvelled at it, truly mesmerised by her beauty and breathless for a moment.

“I need to tell you something.” His voice was as soft as her’s had been, and her eyes were glued to his face as she watched his expressions change. For a moment, her heart began to sink and a million different excuses to blow her off, ran through her head. But his fingers were still delicately wrapped around her wrist, and his thumb, still worshipped the edge of her tattoo.

“What?” Her voice was thick, suddenly excited and scared, all at once, for what he had to say.

“My mother,” He cleared his throat, licking his lips. Roni watched him as he re-adjusted himself on the ledge, though wouldn’t let go of her hand. He breathed out a little laugh. “This is going to sound silly.” He met her eyes for a moment.

Roni just smiled and said softly. “Tell me.”

There was silence for a moment, and Rob started again. “My mother was Scottish,” He smirked and Roni watched how his expression softened. “And she was a little superstitious.” Roni smiled, imagining him growing up with fairy stories and she wondered if that was why his eyes seemed so kind and wistful, like his heart was so incredibly open. “When I was about twelve, she took me to a fortune teller and she told me something that I’ve never been able to forget.”

He guided her hand around, turning her wrist so that their fingers could interlock in the sunlight and her tattoo stood out between them.

“She told me about a woman,” He chuckled to himself. “And I was twelve, I didn’t really want to hear about that kind of thing, but she told me anyway and I remember she asked me to look into her crystal ball. I thought it was a bunch of crap, but then I saw something…” Roni watched him, transfixed by him watching his thumb trace the lines of the feather on her wrist. “I saw this.” He met her eyes, sure and bright and full of an emotion Roni couldn’t quite place.

“My tattoo?”

“I know, it sounds strange,” He shook his head. “But I feel like I’ve been waiting to meet you for a very long time.”

There was a tear forming in Roni’s eye, unbidden by her, as she looked into the ocean blue of his. Something dawned on her then, something overwhelming and confusing, but so right.

“I got it, when I thought I’d lost hope.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was at a point in my life where everything was wrong, I’d lost everything and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t even know where my next meal was coming from, but then, I just started seeing feathers everywhere.”

Rob smiled, listening. “I remember, on my darkest days, I’d see a feather under a park bench, or a beautiful white doves feather just dropped at my toes and eventually, I realised that they were appearing when I needed them most, and that they were telling me that things weren’t always going to be like this.”

She inched closer, tucking her thigh up against his knee and resting her coffee on the ground so she could grasp his hands in both of hers, down in her lap.

“The day I got this,” She brushed her thumb along the tattoo as he had. “Was the day I approached my sister, to make amends and buy this place.” Her eyes drifted up to his. “And having this bar, being here every day has mended my relationship with her and lead me to you.”

“Do you think it’s pre-destiny or fate or something?”

Roni smiled, leaning forward to press her lips to his before pulling back and meeting his eyes again. She shrugged with a smile that touched and brightened her eyes. “I think it’s right, whatever it is.”

Rob pulled her hand towards him, twisting her wrist so he could press a soft kiss to her tattoo.

“So do I.”


End file.
